


The Lonely Boys

by xLeon



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Cuddling, Loneliness, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2020-05-13 19:35:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19257784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLeon/pseuds/xLeon
Summary: After risking his live to save those aboard the Argus II, Nico awakens in the middle night, lonely and cold. Can he find someone who understand what he's feeling?





	The Lonely Boys

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this over a sleepless Christmas night many years ago. I'm posting it here in case I ever get around to revising it/writing the second chapter.

Nico stared up at the ceiling. He’s having trouble remembering where he was. He decided to take stock of his surroundings.

_It’s dark..._

_I’m laying on something soft..._

_The room appears to be made of wood..._

_I’m only wearing my underwear..._

Suddenly he remembers, _I’m in the Argus II. I must have fallen asleep. It’s been so long_ _since I’ve actually been able to sleep. I think I’m forgetting what it feels like._ He thinks back to when he arrived on the ship.  
 

* * *

 

It was late afternoon when Nico shadow traveled to the Argus II. It had been a busy day with lots of travel involved. He needed to pass on the message he carried to Percy and the others. Their lives depended on it. However, the journey had taken its toll on his body. Percy could see it too; he laid his hand on Nico’s shoulder and said, “Thanks for the message man, but you need to get some sleep. You look like you are about to drop dead.

Though he knew the truth, Percy’s hand on his shoulder made him feel nervous. “I’m fine. I’ll be on my way,” he said through a yawn.

“Nonsense. You don’t have to strength to go anywhere. We’ll find a place for you to bunk.”

“He can use my bed,” piped up Leo from across the room, “I never use it.”

Percy nodded like this made sense. “Let me lead you below deck,” he said as he wrapped his arm around Nico, supporting him as they went down the steps.

 _That’s all I can remember_ , Nico thinks, _Did I pass out before we got to the room? Did I_ _undress myself or_ , he blushes in the dark, _could Percy possibly have done it?_ Now that  
he was awake, he didn’t seem to be able to fall back asleep. _What time is it? I’ve_ _probably slept more than I have for the last few weeks. It must be late, I can’t hear_  
_anybody else around._ Just then, Nico realized that he could hear someone. A voice so quiet that he couldn’t make out the words. _No, there’s two voices, a guy and a girl._ He looks up and sees an air vent above the bed. They must be in the room next door. I wonder whose room it is. Could it be Per..?

  
He decides that he doesn’t want to think about that anymore. To distract himself, he sits up and looks around the room. _It appears to filled a bunch of mechanical...stuff._  
_That’s right, I’m in Leo’s room; he’s a son of Hephaestus._ Most of the stuff seemed to have not been moved in a while. He must use this as a storeroom. I wonder where Leo  
is.

He can still hear the voices. _I should go take a walk around the ship, stretch my legs._ _When I get back, I can try to get more sleep, or just shadow travel out of here before_ _anyone sees me._ He gets up and shuffles past the piles. Too late he sees his clothes, neatly folded underneath the bed. He decides it isn’t worth the trouble going back to  
get them. _I won’t be long and I doubt anyone else will be up this late._

He goes out in the hallway and looks both ways. To his right he sees the stairs that lead to the deck of the ship. _They probably have someone standing watch up there. To the left it is._ He passes the door hiding the whispering couple. He glances at it but doesn’t see any clue as to who may be in there. He moves on before his curiosity gets the better of him. He continues past the other doors to the end of the hallway. There he goes down a staircase to the next level. With every step, he feels the temperature rising.

  
When he reaches, the bottom he stops in amazement. He had never seem such large and intricate machinery. Even more impressive, it was almost entirely silent, giving off  
just a faint hum. The heat felt wonderful too. Ever since he traveled the Underworld he has been cold. Even when he’s standing in the sun, his insides feel cold. But now, he feels the warmth in his bones and in his blood.

He stands there for a while, soaking the sight and the heat, before he realized he is being watched. He whirls around to see Leo, lounging in a hammock. Neither boy speaks, but continues to stare at the other.

Finally, Leo can’t stand the silence anymore. “Hola Nico, feeling better?” he asks.

“Yes thank you, very much so. I’m, uh, sorry to have kicked you out of your room.”

“No problemo. I usually sleep down here.”

Nico could see that it was true. The corner of the room had been turned into a living area complete with hammock, chair, and several dressers and worktables.

“I’m surprised your already up. Earlier, you look liked death. Well, more so than usual,” Leo says

  
“I don’t sleep very much.” Nico replies, “What about you? Why are you awake?”

“I’m actually still up. I was just about asleep when I thought of a way to fix a problem I’ve been having with ship’s gyros.”

“What that?” Nico asks.

“Come here, I’ll show you.”

Nico walks up to Leo’s hammock and sees he’s holding a mechanism the size of a baseball. “This is a gyroscope. The ship uses these to stay upright during heavy winds, boarding parties, enemy bombardment, anything like that. Of course, the ones the ship uses are about fifty times bigger. Anyway, they haven’t been performing as well as think they could be so I’ve been trying to figure out why. I of course used top of the line, custom gyros when I made it, nothing but the best for the _Argus II_. So I cleaned and tuned each one and still didn’t get the improvement I wanted. But right as I was about to fall asleep, an idea came to me and...Are you even listening?”

“What? I mean yes, of course. It all sounds so fascinating.” Nico replies. Actually, being this close had allowed him to see what Leo was wearing. His t-shirt was probably once white but was now covered in scorch marks and holes. Below, he was only wearing a pair of briefs that he had outgrown years ago. They were very tight and left little to Nico’s imagination. “I, uh, guess I just don’t under how the gyros work.”

“They work to counter any change in angular momentum applied to the ship.” Seeing Nico’s clueless expression, he continued, “Here, hold this with both hands.” Leo handed over the gyro he was holding and then wrapped his hands around Nico’s. “If you try to tilt the gyro this way, you can feel it pushing back. If you turn it the other way, it pushes back again. Basically, it always wants to remain upright.”

Once again, Nico was distracted from Leo’s explanation. “Your hands are very warm.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Leo says, jerking his hands back.

“Don’t be, it felt nice.”  
“Oh, I, uh, hope you’re not too cold, dressed like that.” Nico blushed, “It’s so warm down here, I actually kind of forgot that I’m not wearing much.”

“I hope you don’t think this is too weird, but I’m kinda the reason you’re like that.” Nico gave him a sharp look. Leo started fast talking, “What I mean is that I was helping Percy get you into my bed, and, well, I know I could never go to sleep wearing a jacket and jeans like that, and I thought that if you were comfortable you would sleep better, and I folded them up neatly and put them under the bed, and I didn’t expect you to walk around..”

“Calm down, Leo, it’s okay. I’m not mad,” Nico’s face was almost completely red from embarrassment.

“Oh that’s good, cause your one scary dude when you’re angry. Besides, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean, it’s not like I’m really wearing anything more.” He stretches out, as if to emphasize his lack of clothing. Nico only blushes harder as the cloth tightens even more across Leo’s very noticeable bulge.

Desperate to change the subject, Nico asks, “So why do you sleep down here?”

Leo’s face instantly clouds over and Nico knew he has hit a sore spot. “I’m sorry, Leo, you don’t have to say anything.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s just that I feel so comfortable down here. Like, down here, I know how everything works and no one else can do the things I do. But once I go upstairs, I’m just Leo the goof off, Leo the screw up. Everyone else has somebody else, but useless little Leo is all by himself. And laying up there, in that cold room, by myself, listening to Frank’s and Hazel’s late-night whispered conversations, I just feel so, so, just so lonely, and I can’t stand it. So I come down here where it’s warm and my machines are here and I don’t feel so lonely anymore.” He sniffs and wipes a tear from his eye. “I’m sorry, you didn’t want to hear all that. I just had to say it out loud or I thought I would explode."

  
“It’s okay. I know how you feel. I actually left your room because I could hear them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and I think you are right. I need to say this out loud or I’ll never get over it. I was upset...I was upset because I thought it might have been Percy and Annabeth in the other room.” Nico finished in a whisper.

“Wow, you mean you like Annabeth, like like-like her?” Leo asks. Nico blushes and looks at the floor as he shakes his head.

“No? Then what? Does that mean you like...Percy?”

  
Nico slowly raises his head and looks at Leo.

“Does he know?” Leo asks.

“No.”

“Wow, that sucks. Like, that really sucks”

“What do you mean?”

“I know what it’s like to like someone and them not like you back. Pretty much the story of my life.” Leo says sadly.

“So you don’t think it’s weird, that I like a guy?” Nico asks.

“What? No! Of course not. Look at me. I’m sleeping alone in an engine room because I’m afraid to hear some of my best friends’ pillow talk. I don’t think I have any right to  
be judging other peoples’ love lives.”

Then, something happens that Leo didn’t think was possible; Nico smiles at him. Leo leans forward and wraps Nico in a hug. He resists at first, but quickly gives in and returns the hug. “Hmmm, you are so warm.” he says before letting out a huge yawn. Pulling from the embrace, Leo also yawns and says, “It sounds like you need some more sleep; I know I do. Feel free to say no, but, if you want, you can stay down here. This hammock is plenty big enough to fit two.”

“Are you asking to...sleep with me?” Nico asks.

“Yes. I mean no. I mean, all I’m asking to let me share my hammock, and my body heat, with you, if you keep me company in return.”

“Then I accept.” Nico says with a smile. Leo helps him into the hammock before wrapping his arms around the other boy. Nico scoots his body against the older boy’s, enjoying his warmth and quickly falls asleep in his embrace.


End file.
